Judge Hears Arguments Over Arkansas Lethal Injection Law

An Arkansas judge says he will rule by early next week on a request to dismiss a lawsuit brought by death row inmates seeking to stop eight executions scheduled to begin Oct. 21.

Circuit Court Judge Wendell Griffen heard arguments Wednesday in a motion from the state to dismiss the lawsuit.

Joshua Lee, an attorney for the inmates, says the state's secrecy law regarding the source of its execution drugs prohibited the inmates from making a complete argument that the state's protocol could lead to cruel and unusual punishment.

The inmates' attorneys have said the law is unconstitutional. Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Merritt argued that the inmates' attorneys had not presented sufficient facts that alternative methods of execution are available to the state or that the law is unconstitutional.

Arkansas' prison system says that an agreement to tell condemned inmates the source of its execution drugs isn't technically a contract and that a judge should dismiss a lawsuit challenging a new death penalty law.

An attorney for eight Arkansas inmates scheduled to be put to death beginning later this month is asking a judge to rule in their favor before the lawsuit alleging new death penalty procedures are unconstitutional goes to trial.

Attorney Jeff Rosenzweig filed motions in circuit court Thursday saying a new secrecy law violates an agreement prisoners have with the state. He said if a judge doesn't rule in their favor, the judge should impose an emergency injunction to protect the inmates' lives.